1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fishing rig, and is more particularly concerned with a fishing rig, using live or artificial bait, in which a plurality of hooks are connected to a bendable member to prevent dislodgement of the hooks and following of the hooks one after another along the same exit path out of the fish.
2. Description of the Prior Art
D.McLean in his U.S. Pat. No. 17,803, issued July 14, 1857, discloses a pair of hooks which are pivotally connected to a line and to one another and which have barbs facing one another. An elastic cord is attached to one of the hooks to maintain the one hook at an angle and away from the other hook until a fish engages the other hook. The retained hook is then moved to be driven into the gills or some other part of the fish, thereby providing a double hooking action.
A similar hook arrangement is disclosed by A.Paysen in his U.S. Pat. No. 959,587, issued May 31, 1910. This arrangement, however, does not use the elastic cord. Many other multiple hook arrangements are known in the art. These arrangements, however, provide that the hooks are attached to a leader and merely follow the same exit path if the hooks are both swallowed by a fish. One such structure is disclosed by B.S.King in his U.S. Pat. No. 2,690,260 and another such arrangement is disclosed by W.E. Norton in his U.S. Pat. No. 2,792,662.
There are many rigs on the market for bait fishing. All of these rigs, primarily because of the following of one hook after another, allow for losing fish which have struck the bait. Other multi-hook rigs will not hook a fish which has taken a bait fish. The cause of this can be found to be that the hooks remain in the bait fish, which, when pulled, pull out of the striking fish without the hooks setting at all.
Also, multi-hook rigs have been found to have little or no hooking power even after the first hook is in place; if the set hook breaks or fails to hold, the fish is likely to get away if the other hook does not set.